Mystery Man

16 year old Samantha Berry, known as the new kid on the block. Her and her mom have moved into a brand new house in Connecticut on Oak hill road.

Samantha and her mom had moved from Florida to Connecticut, hoping for some temperature change, and that’s what they got. They moved in on September 11th, 2001, and now has everything packed, and it’s February 11th, 2002. They only have one speed, slow.

It’s a very nice house. Four bedrooms, three baths. Not to mention a huge living room. Samantha ventures outside to check out their back yard and the woods. Theres a huge back yard and a front lawn compared to what they had in Florida, you pretty much shared you back yard with your neighbor. They ran inside for some lunch.

After lunch, their mom told them to hop into the car to go for a ride. Sam’s dad knows where they’re going....since there’s a mall only twenty minutes away from their house. Living in the city isn’t so fun for Susan, but for Sam, that’s another story. They get to the mall, and realized how packed it was. “Holy cr*p, this place is packed!” Sam’s mom said. “Well guess what, oh well, I need some new clothes for school, these people can just get out of my way.” Said Sam. So they all end up going inside the mall, Sam buys just about everything in Abercrombie and Fitch and many other things. Tim comes out with nothing.

“It’s time for your first day of school kiddos!” “Yay, today is the day where they choose the cheering team”, said Sam. Sam heads out to the bus stop, and ten minutes later, the bus comes and they are off.

It’s 2:30 and the bus has dropped them off at their house. “Mommy, guess what!” Sam said. “Hmm?” Said Sam’s mom. “I made the cheering team!” said Sam loudly. “Good for you honey, now go do your homework.”

Sam marches up the stairs and jumps into her bed and does her homework. Which takes her three hours to do. But for normal people, it would only take about an hour. Of course, Sam wouldn’t be texting or on Facebook or anything like that.

After she finishes her homework, she runs outside to practice her hand stands, cartwheels, and whatever else cheerleaders do. All of a sudden she sees a car pull up to the front yard, its a blue car, Sam’s not sure what kind of car it is. The guy just sits there, for no reason at all. So she gets up and runs into the house. She didn’t even know who that was! She could smell a strong odor as he drove away. Something like a drug, maybe?

Tonight is the night of the first home game for the high school football team, the Mustangs. Sam has had cheering practice every night for the past two weeks. They have their routine down packed. Sam gets on the bus. Right into the corner of her eye, she sees that blue car again, she hurries onto the bus before she sees anything else.

Sam puts on all her make up and glitter and also her uniform and hops into the car. She tries her best to practice in the car with the little space she has, hitting her hands and feet against the dashboard. Cranking up the tunes, as she almost swerves off the road.

She gets the the high school and heads over to the field and goes over to the other cheerleaders and start warming up before the game. As the game begins to start, she sees a familiar face. Someone she has seen before. But who? He was wearing a purple shirt with writing, but she couldn’t read it. She remembers that shirt from somewhere. Sam’s cheering away, not very focused on what she’s doing since all she can think about is that guy in the purple shirt, and starts doing the wrong cheer...embarrassing.

The game is over and she walks towards her car as someone walks up to her, the man in the purple shirt. “What happened out there?” The man said. “Uh, I just wasn’t very focused I guess.” Sam responded. “But you still did a very good job. I’m proud of you.” The man said as he walks away. Sam is running to her car, extremely scared. She starts her car and heads out of the parking lot, hoping to never see that guy again. “He knows where I live, he knows what I do..stalker.” Sam said to herself.

When she gets home, no ones there. So she rushes into her house, locks the door and grabs her phone to text her best friend. Because you know, there’s no such thing as calling anymore in this decade. Sam tells Brittany everything. As soon as she tells Brittany, she freaks out and asks Sam if she can talk about something else. If I were Sam, this is the time where I’d be crapping my pants. No joke. Locking all the doors, shutting off the lights, pretending I’m not home and not going outside for about a week. Why would he know where I live?

Sam goes outside for the first time in 5 days, to get the mail. She goes over to the mailbox, looks down at the ground and finds that there is a note on the ground. It says, “I love you”. It doesn’t say who’s it from. She takes the note, along with the mail and walks into the house. Sam goes through all of the mail, none of it is for her. All bills for her mom and dad. Sam hears her phone ringing, she runs over to it, and it’s Brittany . They talk for about an hour, making plans and such. Brittany and Sam have decided that they are going to the mall. So Sam jumps into her car and heads over to pick up her up.

They’re at the mall, not ten minutes until Sam sees that guy she’s been seeing almost everyday now. She finally goes up to him and they start talking. “Okay, why do you follow me everywhere I go, I don’t know you and I don’t think I want to either.” Sam yelled. “Well, we have to talk, alone.” The guy said. “I’m not going anywhere alone with you.” Sam said. “Bring your friend then if you’d like.” The guy said walking. “So, what is it?” Sam asked. “I’m just going to come out and say it, alright?” The guy said softly. “Spit it out, I’m here to shop, not talk with strangers.” Sam said. “I don’t know how you’ll take this but...I’m your father.” Sam is just so surprised, she just walks away and leaves.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.